Today we begin the liturgical period of Lent with the emblematic ritual of the imposition of the ashes by which we intend to take on the task of turning our hearts towards the horizons of Grace ... This is not some superficial or transitory conversion, but a spiritual itinerary which has a profound effect on our conscience and involves a sincere intention to amend our lives". ... This means undertaking an authentic conversion to God - returning to Him - recognising His sanctity, His power, His majesty...Such conversion is possible because God is rich in mercy and great in love. His mercy is regenerating. ... God, in fact, does not want the death of sinners but their conversion to life. ... He offers us His forgiveness, ... so as to give us a new heart purified from the evil that oppresses it, so as to lead us to participate in His joy. Our world needs to be converted by God, it needs His pardon, His love, it needs a new heart". -Pope Benedict XVI

I Semana de Cuaresma >>>Watch the Meditation as a flash movie: click here>>>
On this First Sunday of Lent, the Gospel of St Mark speaks of Jesus being led into the desert by the Holy Spirit, tempted by Satan and assisted by the angels. Let us pray that our Lenten journey will strengthen us in the struggle against all forms of temptation. Let us invoke them frequently, so that they may sustain us in our commitment to follow Jesus to the point of identifying with him P. Benedict VXI >>>

The Transfiguration of Jesus was essentially an experience of prayer (cf. Lk 9: 28-29). Indeed, prayer reaches its culmination and thus becomes a source of inner light when the spirit of the human being adheres to that of God and their respective wills merge, as it were, to become a whole .I urge you to find in this Lenten Season prolonged moments of silence, possibly in retreat, in order to review your own lives in the light of the loving plan of the heavenly Father. Let yourselves be guided in this more intense listening to God by the Virgin Mary, a teacher and model of prayer. To listen to Christ, like Mary. To listen to him in the word, preserved in Sacred Scripture. To listen to him in the very events of our lives, trying to read in them the messages of providence. To listen to him, finally, in our brothers, especially in the little ones and the poor, for whom Jesus himself asked our concrete love. To listen to Christ and to obey his voice. This is the only way that leads to joy and love."Even in the thick darkness of Christ's Passion, she did not lose the light of her divine Son but rather treasured it in her heart. P. Benedict VXI

Third Sunday of Lent,In the Gospel for this Third Sunday of Lent, St John tells us that, when Jesus found merchants and money-changers in the temple of Jerusalem, he made a whip of cords and drove them out with angry words: “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade” (Jn 2:16).
The Lord’s “severe” attitude might seem in contrast to the customary gentleness with which he approaches sinners, heals the sick and welcomes the little and the weak. To look closely, however, gentleness and severity are expressions of the same love which can be tender or demanding according to need. Genuine love is always accompanied by the truth.
....The Gospel passage also has a more specific meaning, which refers to the mystery of Christ and announces the joy of Easter. Replying to those who asked him to confirm his prophecy with a sign, Jesus poses a sort of challenge: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19). The same Evangelist notes that he was speaking of his body, alluding to his future Resurrection. Christ’s humanity is thus presented as the true “temple”, the living house of God. It would be “destroyed” on Golgotha, but immediately “rebuilt” in glory, to be the spiritual dwelling place of all who accept the Gospel message and let themselves be formed by the Spirit of God.
3. May the Blessed Virgin help us to accept her divine Son’s words. Mary’s mission is precisely to lead us to him, repeating to us the invitation she gave the servants in Cana: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). Let us listen to her motherly voice! Mary knows well that the demands of the Gospel, even when weighty and severe, are the secret of true freedom and of our authentic joy.- Blessed John Paul II P. Benedict VXI

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). These words fill us with joy and hope, as we await the fulfillment of God’s promises! ... the word of God is a word of unbounded hope. “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son … so that through him, the world might be saved” (Jn 3:16-17). God does not give up on us! He continues to lift our eyes to a future of hope, and he promises us the strength to accomplish it. As Saint Paul tells us in today’s second reading, God created us in Christ Jesus “to live the good life”, a life of good deeds, in accordance with his will (cf. Eph 2:10). He gave us his commandments, not as a burden, but as a source of freedom: the freedom to become men and women of wisdom, teachers of justice and peace, people who believe in others and seek their authentic good. God created us to live in the light, and to be light for the world around us! This is what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel: “The man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God” (Jn 3:21).
“Live”, then, “by the truth!” Radiate the light of faith, hope and love in your families and communities! Be witnesses of the holy truth that sets men and women free! …
P. Benedict VXI

Fifth Sunday, "Sir", they said to him, " we wish to see Jesus". Philip in turn went to Andrew, one of the first Apostles very close to the Lord and who also had a Greek name, and they both went and "told Jesus" (cf. Jn 12: 20-21).
In the request of these anonymous Greeks we can interpret the thirst to see and to know Christ which is in every person's heart; and Jesus' answer orients us to the mystery of Easter, the glorious manifestation of his saving mission. "The hour has come", he declared, "for the Son of man to be glorified (Jn 12: 23). Yes! The hour of the glorification of the Son of man is at hand, but it will entail the sorrowful passage through his Passion and death on the Cross. Indeed the divine plan of salvation which is for everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike will only be brought about in this manner. Actually, everyone is invited to be a member of the one people of the new and definitive Covenant. In this light, we also understand the solemn proclamation with which the Gospel passage ends: "and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself" (Jn 12: 32), and likewise the Evangelist's comment: "He said this to show by what death he was to die" (Jn 12: 33). The Cross: the height loftiness of love is the loftiness of Jesus and he attracts all to these heights.
Very appropriately, the liturgy brings us to meditate on this text of John's Gospel today, on this Fifth Sunday of Lent, while the days of the Lord's Passion draw near in which we will immerse ourselves spiritually as from next Sunday which is called, precisely, Palm Sunday and the Sunday of the Lord's Passion. It is as if the Church were encouraging us to share Jesus' state of mind, desiring to prepare us to relive the mystery of his Crucifixion, death and Resurrection not as foreign spectators but on the contrary as protagonists, involved together with him in his mystery of the Cross and the Resurrection.
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The Lenten journey finds its fulfillment in the Paschal Triduum, especially in the Great Vigil of the Holy Night: renewing our baptismal promises, we reaffirm that Christ is the Lord of our life, that life which God bestowed upon us when we were reborn of “water and Holy Spirit”, and we profess again our firm commitment to respond to the action of the Grace in order to be his disciples. P. Benedict VXI

In Christ, God revealed himself as Love (cf. 1Jn 4: 7-10). The Cross of Christ, the “word of the Cross”, manifests God’s saving power (cf. 1Cor 1: 18), that is given to raise men and women anew and bring them salvation: it is love in its most extreme form (cf. Encyclical Deus caritas est, n. 12). P. Benedict VXI